From a convention ten minutes travel from home, to a convention 30 hours travel from home!

We’re leaving Thursday morning for America. I’m so excited. Can’t wait to see family and friends and to attend my first World Fantasy Convention since Brighton. I love World Fantasy and am looking forward to picking up my book bag full of goodies!

My local SF convention, Conflux, is on again this year. I’ll be launching books, teaching a workshop, helping host a Frankenstein party, and more!

Here are the details:

Saturday, 29 September, 1.30: Mary Shelley’s Legacy. Guest of Honour Rob Hood and I will talk about all things Shelley.

Saturday, 29 September, 5pm. Book Launch! Please join me in conjunction with Conflux 14 and Verity 112 as I launch my two new books.

Tide of Stone, a novel, is an exploration of crime and punishment set on an isolated Time Ball Tower. Edited by Lee Murray, it comes from Omnium Gatherium Books.
A Primer to Kaaron Warren is a short story collection, edited by Eric Guignard of Dark Moon Books. It contains reprints, illustrations and one new and very nasty story.

Lee Murray from New Zealand will launch the books. Verity 112 have invented a cocktail just for the event. There will be a cash bar, yummy snacks available, a door prize or two (warning: they will be very Kaaron-esque door prizes) and more. The bar is open until late and I’m hoping people will stay to chat, listen to music, maybe dance!

For those with a taste for malt, we will also have a whisky tasting, known as ‘Whiskycon”, at Verity 112 after the launch. Hosted by local Canberra writer Rob Hood, Whiskycon requires a booking and payment. If you’re keen, comment here and Tim Napper, the organiser, will get back to you.

Place: Verity 112, 112 Alinga St Civic (the bus interchange)

Time: 5pm till late

Sunday, 30 September, 12.30-2.30 Workshop at the Green Shed Underground in the city. This shop is full of second hand clothing. We’ll spend some time deciding on characters, then dressing ourselves to suit. Inhabiting the (possibly haunted) clothing of a person helps us to understand them better. There will be a courtesy bus from the convention for this one but you do need to sign up for it.

Sunday, 30 September, 3.45. Rob Hood and I will host an afternoon tea for Frankenstein’s 200th birthday! This should be fun. We might try to recapture the atmosphere of that isolated house…

Monday, 1 October, 10.30 am: Can Horror be Funny? A panel with Lee Murray from New Zealand and Rob Hood.

Monday, 1 October, 2.30pm: Judging the World Fantasy Awards. I’ll chat about the good and the bad books, show some of the covers off, and talk about what you need to do to stand out. I’ll have lots of the submitted books for sale, with proceeds going to a literacy progamme or perhaps a sponsorship. This to be decided! If you have any thoughts on this, please let me know.

News is out: I’m a judge for the World Fantasy Awards 2018. Very happy to be taking on this challenge. It involves an enormous amount of reading in a genre I love, which will give me a good, rounded knowledge of the state of the business. I really like having that overall understanding, having read for international awards before. It makes you aware of writers and publishers you wouldn’t otherwise be aware of, and gives you something to talk about when people ask you what you’re reading!

From past experience, friendships form in the process, and I’m pleased about that, too.

So when I come to World Fantasy next year as a Guest of Honor, I’ll also be there as a World Fantasy Award judge. Busy year ahead!

Last month I went to Lexicon, the New Zealand Science Fiction convention. I loved the location, Lake Taupo, where the air seems to suit my health. My hair doesn’t frizz, my skin feels soft, my lungs feel clear. And with the massive lake, filled with mystery and beauty, and things stick out of the water, I was creatively inspired as well! To be surrounded by that environment, and by clever, funny, creative people…what a great weekend it was.

Grace Bridges is chairing the 2019 Convention, which will likely be held at Rotorua. They asked me to return as a guest and I absolutely agreed!

Lots of exciting things happening during the Conflux Science Fiction Convention which runs Friday September 29 to Monday October 2. I’m lucky enough to be MC for the event, which has two incredible guests: Ellen Datlow! and Angela Slatter! We’ll be doing a one hour event at Muse Bookshop, one of my favourite places in Canberra, on the Thursday night. Conflux is such a good convention for meeting writers, publishers and editors and for finding inspiration in words.

My story “Mine Intercom”, which I consider one of my scariest, appears in the 2015 Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror. Edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene, this book is a beauty with great stories from Australian writers. This story first appeared in Review of Australian Fiction.

Possibly the biggest news is the awards! “The Grief Hole” has become the first Australian novel to win the Aurealis Award, the Shadows Award and the Ditmar Award. Absolutely thrilled! It also one the Canberra Critics Circle Award, and I’m beginning to the think they are the predictors of what’s to come, because they also gave me the award for “Through Splintered Walls” and “Slights”, my other two most awarded books!

Here is the book its awards. Admittedly the Shadows Statue is my one from last year, but I couldn’t wait to post the news!